Golden Anniversary

This card is for relatives who are celebrating their golden wedding anniversary this year. It's made using my window box construction and the gilding uses Pin-Flair Buff-it gold.

"Happy Anniversary"

Feathers Stamps

I bought this lovely little feathers stamp set a while ago and promptly lost it, so was so delighted when it turned up again in my stash lol! Does that happen to you too? I think it's something to do with quantum mechanics. Stuff is in two places at once and you just can't see it, then it suddenly resolves into one position and you find it again :-) So, I made the background for this card using colours to match the gorgeous ribbon, and the rest of the card just fell into place.

"Happy Birthday"

The background is white card inked with Seedless Preserves and overstamped in Chipped Sapphire. Inks are used to edge all the diecuts.

"Stickpins"

The stickpins are made with beads to match the background colours, and fixed into place behind the bow with a big dollop of Pinflair glue to protect the points.

"Carnations"

The flowers are diecut using the Spellbinders Carnation Creations dies; each of the diecuts is overstamped with the feathers stamp  and some of the edges are also decorated with a chipped sapphire distress marker. Tiny seed beads are added to the centre of each flower to match the stickpins.

DCWV Royal Garden Matstack

I just love all the bright colours in the DCWV Royal Garden matstack, and enjoy mixing them with feathers, flowers and beads.

 

"Something Wonderful"

Those flowers are made by pouring UTEE into moulds. The Lapis Blue UTEE from Creative Expressions makes a great match.

"Live Life to the Full"

The swan is covered with double-sided sticky sheet and microbeads before adding embellishments.

Tuesday Technique - Faux Marbling with Distress Ink and Clingfilm

I came across this technique in an old magazine and adapted it for use with distress inks. The finished effect is very subtle and great for backgrounds.

"Faux Marbling"

Here's what you need (plus clingfilm, I forgot to take a photo of that lol!):

 

"Distress reinkers, misters and Perfect pearls"

1. Fill the misters with water, then add a dropper full of ink and a spatula of Perfect Pearls to each of the misters. Put the cap on and shake well.  I used Bundled Sage ink + green Perfect Pearls, Tumbled Glass ink + blue Perfect Pearls, and Spun Sugar Ink + white Perfect Pearls.

 

"White Card"

2. Lay some white card flat over a non-stick surface and spray all over with clean water. I used 160gsm white smooth card.

3. Spray blue ink in patches on the wet card. You want the ink to puddle.

 

4. Add patches of pink ink.

5. Add patches of green ink. Make sure the whole card is wet and puddling with ink.

6. Tear a piece of clingfilm off the roll and cover the wet, inked card completely, leaving wrinkles.

 

7. Move the clingfilm and wrinkles around until you get smaller wrinkles, or however you want the effect to appear. then turn the whole thing over and leave it to dry with the clingfilm in place. Turning it upside-down helps it dry quicker. I left mine overnight...

 

8. So here's the finished background with the clingfilm removed. Subtle, but fun! When you get to this stage, you can add stamping, diecutting, whatever you like. I diecut mine...

You'll have to wait to Sunday to find out what I did next though, I used these on my Stamping Sensations card this month :-)

Oh, before I go, here's a tip for you. If you have one of the larger diecutting machines, you can cut four of the vintage cabinet diecuts from an A4 sheet of card ...

Cards from scraps

I had a sheet of toppers with matching acetate covers that had been in my stash for years and I was determined to use them, so was delighted when I realised the colours would make a good match with papers from an old calendar.

 

"Cards from Scraps"

The diecuts are made using the same card as the card blanks and this card is also used to mat and layer the toppers.

 

"Everyday"

Pieces of lace are used int he background to soften the feel of the card which could be quite austere with all those silhouettes.

 

"Dreams"

The flowers are made from scraps of fabric samples diecut using Tim Holtz' Tattered Florals die and joined together with brads, or just stuck onto the background with some wet PVA.

"Nature"

Look closely and you'll see some little gem embellishments that someone gave me. I couldn't help using them to look like strange little creatures crawling through the jungle.

 

"Miss You"

I just love the little brass cat charm.

"Together"

The real buttons fixed to the outside of this card echo the printed ones on the topper. The frame is lifted using foam tape and the centre stuck to the card base to create an aperture over which the acetate sits. You could add something to the inside for a shaker card.

"Enjoy"

This last topper had some pink on it in the form of the flower, and so I wanted different colours. I used a patterned paper from a Teresa Collins "Fabrications" pad that came free with Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine and added an organza flower, lace, a matching feather and another of those little gem insects.

Webster's Pages Best Friends free collection

These cards were made with a Webster's pages paper pad and chipboard set that came free with a magazine, but I can't remember which one! They feature some more clay embellishments.

 

"Layers and Colours"

Layering up the chipboards makes for a more luxurious feel, and it's so easy to colour the clay to match using the colour charts from Martha Stewart.

 

"Heat-embossing Clay"

The frame is stamped and heat-embossed with verdigris powder, before die-cutting with the matching Sizzix framelits die, and the butterflies are inked with versamark and also heat-embossed with verdigris. This was just an experiment, but I'm pleased to say the clay took the heat-embossing well.

There were lots more cards from this set, but unfortunately I forgot to photograph them before I gave them away. I make a lot of small cards like these to try out new techniques and just get the creative juices flowing, then package them up into boxes and give them away as presents. It's great to always have a thankyou pressie on hand when you need one.

Some More MAMBI cards and Martha Stewart

I love making things using paperclay and Martha Sewart moulds - it's so easy and looks really effective for adding loads of dimension to your cards.

"Rest and Relaxation"

So these are a few of the cards I missed out when I shared "a pile of A6 cards" a few weeks ago.

"Peacefulness"

These MAMBI cards come in a pad that you tear off for an instant banckground, then it's just a case of adding papers and embellishments and a little inking for some quick cards.

The Martha Stewart paperclay is really light, so it'd great for these small cards - not too heavy and doesn't make the card prone to falling over. I haven't found anything I like as much, but would be interested to know if anyone else has a favourite clay - leave me a comment and let me know :-)